Kuomintang (KMT), chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu visits an innovation incubator named Vstartup in Beijing, ahead of her meeting with President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, November 1, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

Xi Jinping meets Taiwanese opposition leader in Beijing

Chinese president and KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu in closed-door session on cross-strait relations

Chinese president Xi Jinping met with the leader of Taiwan’s opposition party on Tuesday as Beijing’s relations with the island’s new president deteriorate.

Cross-strait ties have worsened under Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen whose China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in May after a landslide victory over the Kuomintang (KMT) in January elections.

Tsai has refused to accept the concept of “one China”, prompting Beijing to cut off all official communication with her government.

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Beijing sees Taiwan, which has ruled itself since KMT forces fled there at the end of the civil war in 1949, as part of its territory requiring reunification.

Xi met with KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the official Xinhua news service said. It did not provide further details of the closed-door meeting.

Xinhua previously reported that Hu was leading a delegation from Taiwan to China for a visit to “promote stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait.”

On Monday, the group stopped in Nanjing to visit mausoleum of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen ahead of the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Hung, whose stance leans towards pro-unification with China and who is also the party’s first female leader, was chosen to lead the party in March despite being ousted as the KMT’s presidential candidate last October due to her conservative views.

At the time, Xi sent Hung a congratulatory note in which he warned against any pro-independence movement.